Originally Posted by
deltajuliet
Since then it seems many civilian students I've met were on par with USAFA candidates I met. That is, who's to say any given civilian student couldn't have been just as successful in a military environment?
Nothing at all, in fact many would have excelled. But they chose not to, or were sidelined by minor medical glitches. But those who completed a rigorous military program including high-performance stick&rudder work while young will probably always have a slight edge over a guy who did not (all else equal).
Originally Posted by
deltajuliet
However, your mention of a 50% washout rate is telling, and it clearly illustrates their filter for quality.
I actually softballed that number, the military has recently tried to be more efficient in flight training by reducing the washout rate. It may have been as high as 70% washout during the 90's. And all the washouts were at least fairly competitive educated people.
Originally Posted by
deltajuliet
All that said, some civilian pilots do suck.
A better way of thinking about it would be to consider that the lowest common denominator is significantly lower for civilians. There's almost no practical limit for how bad a civilian pilot can be because general aviation training and checking is very poorly standardized across the US. You can shop for an examiner, fail as many times as you like, or do 141 training where pink slips may not even be issued.
121 training *should* set the bar higher than 91, but apparently that didn't happen at colgan.